High treason on the American taxpayer

I know many of you are lost without your Sunday NFL fix. Well, for nostalgia, here’s a little football analogy. President Obama has managed to punt yet another serious issue to Congress.

In 2010, our federal deficit reached an all-time high of $1.56 trillion. This year, with our current spending and revenue levels, the deficit is projected to be $1.3 trillion. Right now, 12 percent of our budget goes to pay the interest on our national debt, almost double the amount spent on nondefense discretionary spending.

For years, the U.S. has cried with alarm that our European allies, notably Italy, France, Portugal, Ireland and Greece, were spending too much and their socialist tax policies were detrimental to their people. Runaway pension programs, crushing tax burdens, generous government salaries, retirement plans that paid retirees as if they were still employed and government-run health care have brought these nations to the verge of bankruptcy.

Now America is only footsteps behind.

On Feb. 1, Obama proposed a 2012 budget that includes $3.8 trillion in government spending. According to an article in National Review, this budget would push debt held by the public to nearly $12 trillion. When Obama’s four-year term is complete, the federal government will have borrowed as much as it did during the two centuries-plus since the republic was founded.

This budget is nothing more than political theater and an attempt by the president to punt the difficult decisions to the House Republicans. Spending has increased. The budget fails to address the growth of entitlement programs — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — that make up the bulk of our federal spending.

Rather than proposing a responsible spending plan that addresses our current economic needs, the president has asked us to once again accept deficit spending. Questioned about the budget’s inefficiencies, he was forced to admit that it “does not do enough to resolve the nation’s long-term fiscal problems.”

Mr. President, I call your budget high treason on the American taxpayer!

Obama recognizes that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has 60-plus freshman members, many of whom are more conservative and won’t tolerate fiscal irresponsibility. House Republicans have been fighting ferociously to pass a bill that would cut spending by $61 billion through Sept. 30.

Even more significantly, freshman Tea Partiers are pressuring House Speaker John Boehner to up the ante to $100 billion in cuts. This would subject practically every government service to reductions in funding.

With the 2012 presidential election looming and Republicans gearing up for a fierce challenge, the president’s budget makes it apparent that he is governing to get re-elected.

In an effort to appear more conservative, the Obama administration claims that over the next 10 years, its budget plans will save the country $1 trillion. However, if you ask members of the administration to outline specific cuts, their answers are vague. Not to mention the fact that $1 trillion in cuts is hardly enough.

The biggest shortfall of Obama’s budget is its failure to address entitlements, even though he has referred to them as America’s primary fiscal problem. The Congressional Budget Office explained that over the coming decade, spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and “Obamacare’s” new entitlements will reach $3 trillion by 2021, doubling 2011 spending on those same programs.

House Republicans say we can’t continue to ignore this problem, but that’s exactly what they’re doing. They continue the farce by proposing to cut discretionary funding by $61 billion. That sounds good, but they’re still ignoring unabated spending and, like the president, they’re afraid to uncover the real problem.

Maybe they’re waiting for a crisis similar to that of our European brothers in Portugal, Spain and France before they’re willing to act. Shame on them! If we fail to address the skyrocketing costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, we will be bankrupt and become not a second-world economic power but a third-world power.

We can no longer be afraid of the political consequences of undertaking these needed reforms. Our brethren at the federal level should look closely at the mayhem in Wisconsin and the courageous actions of Gov. Scott Walker. I urge the Obama administration to follow suit and not continue the shell game that will lead to the financial ruin of our nation.

Al D’Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a public policy and business development firm. Comments about this column below or write ADAmato@liherald.com.